Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-15
FLoA ER FESTIVALS AND A CHAL-
LENGE

most hattering auspices, magnificent
Flower Festival, and on the opening night
some 5000 people were in attendance,
fully half of whom are visitors to the
State from the East The fair is reported
to be a very brilliant one, and we have not
the least doubt of it. No country can
-surpass California in floral wealth. Three
years ago Sacramento held floral festival,
which was on all sides admitted to exceed
in extent and richness anything of the
kind ever before attempted as the show
men phrase it. The famous English
Rose Fair" it is conceded, was eclipsed
10y this floral exposition. and the most
noted examples of flower shows are
-dwarfed by comparison with it.
There is no reason why these flower
festivals should not be of annual occur
renee here, and in all the chief towns of
the State. In the way of spectacles moth
ing in art can compare with them, appeal
to so large an audience, excite so general
a sympathy, or contribute so much to
human good All the adornments and
colors and brilliancy on such an occasion
are from natures inexhaustible store-house
of beauty. and the least skilled and the
humblest may pluck and contribute and
have part in the painting of the gor-
geous picture. limo other affairs can it be
so truly said all the people may unite.
There is neither rank, station, wealth.
poverty nor lowlineSs recognized at the
shrine of the flower. In popular flower
fairs there is a field for relaxation and
satisfying entertainment in which all men
and women and children can equally take
part.
The uses of such displays are unques-
TONED. To the stranger they speak
volumes for the equability of our climate
and the richness of our soil To our own
people they appeal in sentimental way
that is responded to by every one. We
never tire Of our floral treasures, and
never cease to boast of their luxuriance
and beauty-nor should We They appeal
TO every heart; they withdraw lis from
the hard and stony ways of everyday
life; they soften our natures and awaken
the tenderer emotions; they touch the
soul and develop the love for the beautiful
in the oldest and most impassive of be-
ings. BY the admiration they evoke and
the invitation they extend to embrace
them, they court and win us all
Nothing but good can come out of these
floral festivals. They are shrines of love
illness and gentleness, at which we can af-
ford to pay our devotions There is not
town of any considerable size in this State
that may not have its flower festival, and
not one but will find benefit In it. Horti-
cultural and agricultural fairs are prose,
floral festivals poetry; We have enough of
the hard and practical at all times, and
something of the poetic will contribute to
the betterment of our natures and the uni
fving of the better impulses of the people.
We are gratifed that Los Angeles is re-
solved upon holding her flower festivals
year after year and it would be still more
gratifying if other interior cities would
turn aside in the springtime to such enter
taiument Their people, meeting at the
affairs of flowers, would discover something
more of the tender and gentle standings of
human nature, aud go back into the CRIME
and dust of daily struggle strengthened,
refined and altogether bettered. Mayor
Workman, in opening the Los Angeles
Flower Festival, spoke of the people as
epaying their devotions to the incarnation
of spring, manifested by the banks of roses
exhaling the instilling lessons of purity"
This bit of sentimental and rather con-
fused enthusiasm will be forgiven him.
He, and the officers of state, and army and
bench, and the leaders in commerce, trade
and mechanics, were indeed wolshiping at
q common and lovely altar, since what
ever in nature gratifes the tastes, quick
ems the gentler emotions and stimulates
the love of the beautiful. men may well
worship, and they viii be lifted up and
ennobled and refined by it in turn.
The Mayor took occasion in his address
TO gracefully challenge the northern coun-
ties to surpass the south in horticultural
productions, aud denied their ability to do
SO. The northern counties can takeup the
gauntlet without any disparagement of the
south, in the perfect assurance of triumph.
The north would rob the south of not
single attribute of wealth or beauty, or
solitary credit-inarz for productiveness
and progress and public spirit. But since
Its chosen representative has made the
challenge quoted, it is becoming in the
people of the north to give him notice